Unforgettable Dark Sky Immersion: Cosmic Gateway

As part of a tour bus group we took in this experience. Our guide gave a very detailed commentary on the Maori use of the stars and of the celestial bodies. Unfortunately he lost a lot of them due to his detailed commentary. The facility is located at such a spectacular location that just walking the grounds and taking in the views is a must. Crystal blue waters capped by snow capped mountains.

We booked the Indoor Astronomy experience because we knew that it was going to be a cloudy evening, and I wanted my children to hear about the Soutern Sky constellations. Our tour guide was enthusiastic and informative. It's a great option if you know you are not going to see the real thing!

As we had come to Tekapo we wanted to find out a bit more about the stars. It was quite enjoyable. The special effects were good and we liked the telescopes.

This is a tough one to review. We originally booked the Summit Experience, but unfortunately it was a cloudy night, so that was canceled. I do want to advise people looking at this to be careful. I just assume observatories are placed in relatively clear locations, but looking at the forecast when we ultimately visited had several cloudy days. I don't know how often this gets canceled, but I'd be curious to know. If I had known that this area was prone to overcast nights X% of the time, it would've helped make my decision to plan this or not. Obviously that is not the observatory's fault, but wanted to note for those considering. They offered the indoor experience as a replacement, which we took so that there was some activity. The indoor activity just wasn't terribly interesting to me. It involved looking at an old telescope and going through three rooms with projections to talk about the night sky. The presentation wasn't that different than any other planetarium show (this is not a planetarium, however) that you would find at a local science center. It's for that reason that I would not recommend taking the indoor show. I would have preferred the full refund. For those considering the indoor show, the price just doesn't meet the product you actually get. Skip the indoor and carefully weigh the Summit Experience based on the cancellation chances.

Great tour guide, brilliant presentation and worth the visit. The knowledge shared is awesome and the orator does his job very well.

Informative, enjoyed the cultural stories, the brought the experience to life. Glad we had something indoors to do given all the rain.

$50 per person was a bit over the top for this half hour experience. You got to watch a video on constellations on the big screen and then moved on to a room about suns, another projection about constellations and the. See the big telescope. While I’m sure out guide was very knowledgeable he was very difficult to understand. Definitely would not recommend for the money.

A very interesting and educational experience. The guide was excellent and hugely knowledgeable. A good way to spend a spare hour.

This was a bit disappointing for the price. Geared more for younger kids - not space literate teenagers and adults. I hoped to learn a bit more about the Dark Sky Project, research etc but it was mostly about Māori astronomy, which was quite interesting, but not sure it was enough to sustain the 45mins at the $180 it cost for our family. .

Good way to spend a cloudy day, we went for the 130$NZD family ticket (daytime planetarium experience). Mikey is a good narrator and we were taken into three different rooms that displayed image projections. Leant about Māori creation stories and also how to navigate the night sky.